Most of us are waking up to the fact that we all need to make significant changes to our lifestyles and habits in order to counter climate change and the massive amounts of plastic polluting the planet. Whilst governments and major corporations need to enforce changes, there are plenty of small, simple things each of us can do in our lives to make a difference.
At LinenMe we are proud to produce textiles from an environmentally-friendly material: linen. We’ve written lots before about linen’s eco-credentials, but we thought we’d take a look this week at 5 easy things we can all do to reduce waste in one area of the home. The bathroom is a real plastic hot-spot, with shampoo bottles, toothbrushes, shower gels and other toiletries all adding to the landfill plastic problem. We did some research and have made these simple switches in our bathroom to help cut waste and reduce plastic consumption.
1.Bamboo toothbrushes
It’s a horrifying thought that every toothbrush we’ve ever used is lying about somewhere, still in tact. To avoid adding more to the rubbish piles, try switching to bamboo toothbrushes. You can even get eco-friendly replacement heads for electric toothbrushes.
2.Cotton pads instead of cotton wool
If you use cotton wool to remove make-up or clean your face, you could replace this with a set of washable cotton pads. Simply use, wash and repeat. No waste, and you could even try making some yourself from scrap material if you have an old tea-towel or shirt.
3.Try an Eco Egg for your laundry
Choosing green alternatives needn’t always cost more. These clever laundry eggs use mineral balls to clean, instead of detergent. They last for up to two years before they need to be replaced. If you invest in an Eco Egg instead of buying your regular laundry liquid you’ll save a whole heap of money, as well as avoiding more plastic bottle waste and harsh chemicals washing into the water supply. Ours is on its way - we’ll do a wash test on some linens in a few weeks’ time so we can compare the results. Watch this space!
4.Get linen bath towels
If you need to buy new bath towels, choose linen over cotton. Linen uses less resources to grow and produce textiles, and it is biodegradable so that when it eventually finishes being useful (not for years!) you don’t need to worry about clogging up landfill.
5.Eco-friendly shampoo and shower products
There are some wonderful bath and shower products out there that don’t come in plastic bottles and aren’t full of nasty chemicals. There are some great, innovative brands out there offering refill services for toiletries, like Plaine which delivers your products and takes back your empty aluminium bottles for re-use. Solid bar soaps and small-scale natural beauty products all have a smaller impact on the environment than mass-produced, plastic-packaged toiletries, so with a little conscious shopping you can find green alternatives to pretty much everything you need.
Would you consider making any of these changes? Have you already changed the way you stock up on bathroom essentials?
Let us know in the comments - we’d love to hear your thoughts.
For more on bathroom decorating with linen go here, and for tips on why linen bath towels are best for summer go here.